<snip
  The  pump should have totaled @
  $38.00 (and change).  When the receipt was printed, and she
 checked  it
  was $ 47.00 (and change).
  <snip
   Whichever grade you are using,  put EXACTLY 10 LITERS in your
   tank, then look at the dollar amount. If the dollar  amount is not
   EXACTLY 10 times the price of  the fuel you have chosen, then the
 pumps
   are  rigged.

   In my case, as I said, the  mid-grade was $0.885 per liter; my
 dollar
   amount  for 10 liters should have been $8.85 . I wish I  had
 checked the
   pump. It doesn't matter where  you pump gas, please check the 10
 liter
   price. If you do find a station that is  cheating, contact the
 MTO, and
   direct your  comments to the Commissioner, the info is on  the gas
   pumps.


  This test is unlikely to give you much information.  If they have
  rigged the pump to say it delivered 10 liters when you only got 8,
  it's likely to give you the price for 10 liters also.  You certainly
  wouldn't be complaining if the pump said it delivered 10 liters and
  only charged you for 8.  The first example seems to be different
 in that
  it would appear the published rate was one amount but the price was
  being calculated at a higher rate.  I would also be surprised if the
  pump was capable of calculating at a different rate than shown on the
  pump although the sign at the station could easily be different than
  what is shown on the pump.

  I'm not a gas pump expert and they may not work they way I think, and
  the internal working could be tampered with, but if they aren't
  designed to use the price displayed on the pump to calculate the
 total
  cost then whoever oversees the design of gas pumps is incompetent.

  On the price of oil, There is a movie at
  http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/geology/tectonics.html that shown the
  movement for the last 740 million years.   Dinasours were from around
  280 million to 65 million years ago.  I tried to email it, but it
  exceeded your size limit of 15 MB.  Right click on the Quicktime link
  just under Plate tectonics animations to get a copy.  It's a lot more
  useful after downloading than trying to view the web versions.  There
  is a lot of information on the subject at this web site.

  My personal opinion is that there was a lot of stuff going on.
 You can
  grow a large mass of carbon based stuff in 200 million years.
 Some of
  that may now be coal, tar sands, or oil.  That doesn't mean the
 Russian
  theory is incorrect either.  My understanding is that the core heat
  that drives plate tectonics is mostly generated by radioactive
 decay of
  material in the core. Don't remember which elements were involved.

  Bob W.

  Still pretty cold at the north pole.

  Paul Lamar

 Maybe not.  There is another interesting animation at
 http://www.scotese.com/paleocli.htm  which shows the earth temperature
 for 440 million years.  200 million years ago the polar regions were
 warm temperate, about like the US and Europe today.  I had trouble
 getting the animation to run.  It uses Java applets, so depending on
 how your browser is set up it may not work.  Attached is the average
 temperature time line from the site.  What does this chart suggest
 about the issue of human caused global warming?

 BTW, the "processing" of stuff didn't start 65 million years ago, it
 would have been an ongoing process for 280 million years or so.

 Bob W.

 --
 N93BD - Rotary Powered BD-4 - http://www.bob-white.com
 3.8 Hours Total Time and holding
 Cables for your rotary installation - http://roblinstores.com/

 Has anybody successfully made crude oil out of alligators?

 Paul Lamar



 I understand they don't taste bad.  :)
 Chris C.

 Supposedly they taste like chicken and not crude oil :)

 Paul Lamar


 Chris C/Paul,

   I've eaten Alligator meat.  While not "tasting" bad, it's very tough.
 Usually when prepared, it's cut into small pieces and pan-fried in oil
 (it can be breaded).  I wouldn't say it tastes like Chicken, but the
 flavor is quite mild.  Just tough...!

 Jack Beale

 I understand living tissue is 98% water.
 Perhaps we could farm alligators, freeze dry them, dump them into a vat,
 indroduce the right microbes and manufacture crude oil like making beer.

 Why not? The Russian made crude out of rock.
 Are we going to let them out do us?

 Paul Lamar


We don't need crude from alligators..  We need gasoline.  Anyway,
algae seems like a much better bet -  less toothy, and a better
attitude.. :)

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Algae_fuel


Matt-

How would we know unless we tried it?
What ever happened to those vertical algae farms. I have heard nothing
about them in the past couple of years.

Paul Lamar


What do you have against alligators??  :)

There are several outfits still working on algae farms, but the
private ventures are struggling for a lack of cash because of the
economy and the return of comparatively cheap oil.


Matt-